Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Oui Oui!

We submitted our application this morning for our French intern!  We still have to decide if we'll be up and running in time for his/her arrival in August or if we'll need to hold off until the spring semester, but either way, we're pretty excited.  It's just the motivation we need to get that 3rd floor re-no started.  But...can we finish it in time?  What's that?  You thought we were keeping the faux marble wood trim?  Well, I can't say we didn't consider it but in the end folks, sponge painting is never the answer. 

Does this mean we have yet another country's flag to hang outside?  Possibly.  We're starting to look like the United Nations around here.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Over the Weekend

We had a great time on Saturday at a fundraising event for the little one's new school. The important details are listed below....


The highlights:
- Ev in a suit (Meow.)
- an excuse to wear black and stilettos (like I need one!)
- open bar
- lots of incredible French food
- super delicious nut brown beer and (decent) red wine 
- Michael Smith (pictured below)
- and during the live auction, we did not get swindled into bidding $1000 on a piece of Kindergarten artwork (but the guy next to us did!). 


We had a nice little weekend.  But we can't wait for the next one!  For the third year in a row we're headed to St. Pete's Beach.


Shh....

I can almost hear the sound of a tiny umbrella being placed in my glass....

Feeling Blue

Over the weekend, we made a list of to-dos as we often do, but then don't....well, we do, but some things we don't get around to doing or we do do but then we stop doing and remember we need to pick back up and "to done" them.  That made sense...right?  

Case in point: The kitchen.

We came out swinging with to do's when we first got into the house.

Need a quick reminder?



That just gave me a mini-anxiety attack.

By all accounts it was the one room that we needed to do right---- right away.  Yet on occassion we would get distracted from our list of do's.  Like in the early days of demo when we went totally crazy ripping and scrapping off wallpaper for a solid week, wiping down the walls and getting them ready for paint.  We had everything off and ready to, well you know, do---- except for a cookie sheet sized area of super sticky and un-stylishly stubborn wallpaper. 


Remember???

It was all we had left, but we got busy on other projects and it stayed there for 2 weeks.  Just stayed.  Taunting us. Up there, above the fridge space.  All gray and mauve-ish and blue daisy-y. And eventually, we got around to showing that wallpaper who was boss.

Us.

In case there was any confusion.

And yet the same thing happened when we opened the third floor sweatshop.  You'll recall from earlier posts it was the place where all dark stained, terrible cabinetry went to die.  I spent a solid 2 weeks sanding, bleaching, priming, painting, second coating and then..... stalling.  All that was left to-do was a final coat on the front side of the doors and drawers.  Yet there they sat for weeks, out of sight; out of mind.  And as you our loyal followers know, eventually they got done.

We were back on top!

But.....here we are, in that place once again. 

We knew we were into orange as an accent color in the kitchen, but finding the right color to paint the walls has been the longest ongoing dilemma we've faced.  In the early days we tested a super neutral brown then a pale grayish green.  And just like a certain goldie-locked fairy tale friend, we couldn't find that "just-right" fit.  We went through too light, too dark, too crazy and too blah. And what we have currently:  White, with a little lime-y green, a gray accent wall with a little bit of orange and a whole lot of confusion.

See? Half green. Half White.

Our multiple-personality kitchen is not to blame.  It can't help that we have not been inspired enough to finish it.  But this morning that all changed.

I was inspired:



Maybe it's because I spent all of my formidable high school years immersed in the color combo, but somehow the thought of combining orange and blue, really never occurred to me.  I mean, I'd seen it done, but using it in our house never crossed my mind. So I started to search Google Images (how much do we love Google----we'll save that for another day).

And to my surprise, the color combo is everywhere from high fashion to interior design: 









Now, when it comes to decor, I like to think outside the box.  But the problem is I often have too many ideas swirling around my head, it's hard to settle on a single concept and execute it.  But the one thing I do know about design is when it comes to colors, opposites attract.  With orange and blue being opposites on the color wheel, they are a clever combination of perfectly paired and decidedly daring.  It's just what we need! 

I haven't yet been to the paint store, but the plan is to head there later this week (is that more procrastination?).  I can't say for sure that this is the kick in the pants we needed, but it sure feels like a good fit! And while we haven't asked Goldilocks to offcially sign off on this "just right" idea, we're hoping that the long overdue story of our kitchen conundrum, this work in progress, finally has a fairytale---or at the very least---complete ending.

And then we can scratch one more item off the list.

So while we may not always complete things in the desired amount of time.  We're still the boss around here and we're still in charge...

...even if our ever growing list of incomplete projects and our kitchen's multiple personlities beg to differ.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Big Business

It's officially been about 20 years (give or take) since either of us have seen or hosted a lemonade stand, so when Alex asked if she could have one, we jumped at the chance!  Going into it we didn't imagine it would attract a lot of attention, even though we have a busy running/walking trail right across the street from our house, we didn't figure many would cross over and grab a glass. 

We couldn't have been more wrong.

We started thinking up ways to make her feel better if no one showed up.  Even lining our pockets with change so we could be repeat customers, but before we even had a chance to get our cups set out, we already had 2 cars that pulled up and parked on our street, waiting in line for a Jonas Brothers cup of lemonade.

To say we were surprised in an understatement, because over the course of the next hour we literally had nonstop action at our little lemonade stand. We hadn't even set a price and already people were handing over dollar bills and engaging in conversation.  We had mentioned to Alex that some friends of ours would be doing the March of Dimes Walk for Babies in honor of their daughter, so when she agreed to donate a portion of her proceeds to their fundraising efforts we couldn't have been more pleased.

It turned out to be an excellent way to meet some neighbors and we even squeezed in a little philanthropy along the way. 


Our first customers
Open for business.
It's hard to see in this picture, but in case there was any confusion: Yes we have lemonade. No we do not have cotton candy, nor green ice cream nor cookies.

Lemonade. The Jonas Brothers. Good deeds. And some good old fashion fun.

How refreshing!

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Size Matters

OMG!

I can hardly stand the excitement! We've been stalking this massive monstrosity of a light fixture for a while  (its 34" wide!) and now it’s here (!!!!!!!!) sitting in a box on our dining room floor! I've put it in my online shopping cart at least 4 times only to back out....but today, a knock on the back door lead to the biggest (literally the biggest!) surprise ever!  I had no idea it was coming!


"What is that?"


I almost died.


All props to Ev for this one!

He. Is. Charming. Exclamation Point!


Jazz hands for being super jazzed about this beauty.


Its the sexiest light fixture on the face of the planet!!!!


And once we have this beauty hanging in our dining room, surely I will wear black cocktail dresses while making delicious desserts and serving fantastic champagne in fancy glasses.

Right????

Stay tuned...as soon as we figure out how to hang this monster, we'll post the reveal!!!!

Sunday, April 4, 2010

All in a (Holi)Days Work

It may have been a holiday weekend, but with the kiddo away, family in town last weekend, family in town next weekend, and some of the most beautiful weather we've had in what seems like years---- it was the perfect weekend to relax and focus on beautifying the outside of our home. 

Let's begin with the deal of the week.  Six patio chairs, purchased from where else?----Craigslist----for a mere $40.  Hard to beat.  Deal! Deal! Deal!  We placed them out on the side porch on Friday evening and when the sun came up Saturday AM, we pulled up a couple of them, with coffee in hand, and watched the world (ok...the neighborhood) go by.

Nice chairs.





After we caffeinated and surveyed our surroundings, we decided the yard was in some serious need of attention, not to mention our new furniture needed a home. 

Back at Christmas, we picked up 4 miniture spruce trees and decided to care for them until we could figure out where to put them. So after a long, cold winter living indoors, we finally decided to bring them outside, introduce them to the sun and make them a home on our porches.  They are pretty tiny, but now that it's warmer and they have some sun, they should start to bulk up real soon.  We headed out to our local home improvement center and picked up a tray of some pretty red flowers (don't ask us the name we offcially know zero about anything landscaping related) and we put them together for what we think isn't a half bad little presentation!


The pretty red flowers...


... with baby trees


On the front porch (don't pay any attention to that door...)


...and on the side porch.

And speaking of things we bought then stored away, before we ever moved into the house we scored another piece of furniture from ---you guessed it!---and hid it away for future use.  Well, we almost considered re-selling it before our patio chairs got here and we realized we knew just the perfect place for it.  We forgot to take a before picture, but one Google Image search later and voila!


It looked very similar to this.
So we did what we do best: spray paint terrible looking furniture we got for a steal....($10!)

And then we found a little home for it with our chairs and a new outdoor rug....

Add some plant life that we had leftover using some recycled kitchen canisters....


Then just wait for the sun to go down so I can do my most favorite thing ever (burn tea lights!)....

And last, grab a frosty beverage, kick back and enjoy!



Good deals. Great weather. A prettier yard. And a few new places to sit, eat, relax, enjoy....oh yeah, we'll drink to that!

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